Railroad Car with Reinforced End Doors

ABSTRACT

A railroad freight car adapted for carrying automobiles and having a pair of doors enclosing and end of the car body. The pair of doors is hinged to the sides of the car body and meets each other at a central vertical plane, with each door including latches at top and bottom that engage an end sill and a roof the car body. The doors include panels of composite construction and have stiffening structures along vertically extending closure mating sides of the doors, whose margins confront each other. Door engagement members on each door extend toward and are engaged with the stiffening structures on the margin of the opposite one of the pair of doors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to railroad freight cars useful for carrying motor vehicles, and particularly to end doors for such cars, for preventing unauthorized access to motor vehicles being carried.

Railroad freight cars have long been used for transporting newly manufactured motor vehicles long distances from the point of manufacture or a port of arrival to cities where dealerships are located or to railroad terminals where the motor vehicles are loaded onto trucks for transport over highways to the locations of dealerships.

In order to avoid pilferage or vandalism of motor vehicles and to protect motor vehicles from airborne hazards, many railroad freight cars designed to carry motor vehicles are enclosed and include roofs and end doors.

Such railroad freight cars include doors at either end of the car to prevent unauthorized access to motor vehicles carried within the car. Some such railroad freight cars include pairs of doors that are hinged at opposite sidewall corners of the car, with the doors meeting each other at the centerline of the car and being latched to the end sill and roof of the car to keep them closed. In the past, however, thieves have been known to gain access to motor vehicles carried within such cars by applying significant force to the edges of the end doors of such cars, where the doors meet each other at centerline of an end of the freight car. In response, the American Association of Railroads has established standards for the amount of force that the end doors of such a railroad freight car must successfully be able to resist.

While the doors of a railroad freight car must be functional to prevent access to the cargo within an enclosed car, it is always desirable to reduce the tare weight of a car when practical, in order to avoid the expense of fuel for hauling anything other than freight-earning cargo. Railroad freight car and doors have therefore recently been built of composite materials in order to reduce the weight of those doors, with the result that some such doors are more flexible and thus more susceptible to being pulled open than were the heavier, stronger doors built in the past.

What is needed, then, is a door for enclosing cargo within a railroad freight car that is not only light in weight but also resistant to being pulled open by a moderate amount of brute force.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes some of the aforementioned shortcomings of prior art railroad cars by providing a railroad freight car including a pair of end doors that provide ample resistance to being pulled open by thieves or vandals.

A railroad car that is one embodiment of the invention claimed herein includes end doors of lightweight composite materials, each door including stiffening structures along the margins that meet each other at the centerline of the car.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a pair of end doors includes latches to engage the car body at the top and bottom of the doorway at the end of the car, and interlocking members are mounted on a margin of each door in position to engage the margin of the adjacent door of the pair between the top and bottom latches.

The foregoing and other objectives and features of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a railroad freight car designed for transport of motor vehicles and having end doors at each end of the car body.

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the railroad freight car shown in FIG. 1, at an enlarged scale.

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of one of the doors shown in FIG. 2, at an enlarged scale.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the door shown in FIG. 3, viewed from inside the body of the railroad freight car shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 5 is an elevational view from inside the body of the railroad freight car shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, showing both of the end doors, with the doors closed and mated with one another.

FIG. 6 is a sectional detail view taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a detail view, at an enlarged scale, of a portion of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a detail sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Referring first to FIG. 1, a railroad freight car 10 has a body 12 including a pair of opposite ends 14 and 16. The car body 12 includes a roof 18 and an end sill 20 at each of the ends 14 and 16.

As may be seen in FIG. 2, a pair of doors 22 and 24 enclose the end 16 of the car body 12, extending vertically from the roof 18 down to the end sill 20. Each of the doors 22 and 24 includes three panels interconnected with each other by vertically extending hinges. A hinge side 26 of the door 22 and a hinge side 28 of the door 24 are mounted on respective sides of the car body 12. A vertically extending closure mating side 30 of the door 22 confronts and extends alongside a closure mating side 32 of the door 24. Each of the doors 22 and 24 has a respective latch 34 located at a top end of the door and engaging the door with the roof 18. Each of the doors 22 and 24 also has a respective latch mechanism 36 at a bottom end of the door and engaging the door with the end sill 20 of the car body 12.

At least a door panel 38 of the door 22 and a door panel 40 of the door 24, and desirably all the panels of each of the doors 22 and 24, may be of composite material construction including a core 39 of a light, yet strong material such as balsa wood surrounded by a skin 41 of a composite material such as fiber-reinforced plastic resin.

As shown in FIG. 3 with respect to the door 24, each of the doors 22 and 24 includes a stiffening structure extending along the margin of the respective closure mating side 30 or 32. The stiffening structure may include an outer reinforcing plate 42 extending vertically along a margin of the closure mating side 32 on an exterior face of the door 24, as shown in FIG. 3. The reinforcing plate 42 may be of a strong steel plate construction with a width 44 and may extend from a point a few inches above the bottom end of the door 24 to a point within a few inches of the top end of the door 24, as may be seen in FIG. 3.

The door stiffening structure may also include an inner reinforcing member 46 extending vertically along a margin of the closure mating side 32 of the door 24 on its interior side, as shown in FIG. 4. The inner reinforcing member 46 may have a width 48 similar to the width 44 of the reinforcing plate 42, and also extends from within a few inches from the bottom end of the door 24 to within a few inches of the top end of the door 24, and is aligned with and opposite the reinforcing plate 42. The reinforcing plate 42 and the reinforcing member 46 are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners 50 such as bolts or rivets extending through the panel 40.

The outer reinforcing plate 42 and inner reinforcing member 46, separated from each other by the door panel, are spaced apart from the neutral axis of the door and absorb the highest stresses to resist bending in the door panel 38 or 40.

A pair of door engagement members 52 and 54 is carried on the interior of the door 24 along the closure mating side 32 and may be welded to the top of the “hat” shape of the reinforcing member 46. Each door engagement member has a relatively wide base and is tapered to a relatively narrow outer end, so the wide base can carry any stresses to a larger area of the inner reinforcing member 46.

Retainer pins 56 and 58 are located at the top end and bottom end, respectively, of the closure mating side 32 of the door 24 and are captured by respective hooks on the roof 18 and the end sill 20 as the door 24 is moved through the last few inches before it is completely closed toward the door 22 and the centerline of the car 10. Thus, when the door 24 is fully closed, the retainer pins 56 and 58 hold the closure mating side 32 of the door 24 in its required position, close to the roof 18 and the end sill 20 for complete closure of the end 16 of the car body 12, and the door stiffening structure maintains a rigid and straight, or planar configuration of the door to resist an attempt by a would-be unauthorized entrant.

A similar stiffening structure is also provided on the opposite side door 22, as shown in FIG. 5, where it may also be seen that the door 22 includes an upper door engagement member 60 and a lower door engagement member 62 similar to the door engagement members 52 and 54 on the door 24. The door engagement members 60 and 62 are mounted on the door 22 at respective heights slightly lower than the adjacent door engagement members 52 and 54 on the door 24, so that the doors 22 and 24 may be closed fully without the door engagement members interfering with each other. The door 22 also includes retainer pins 56 and 58, as shown in FIG. 5.

As shown best in FIGS. 6 and 7, each of the door engagement members 52, 54, 60, and 62 is attached to a respective one of the reinforcing members 42, as, for example, by being welded to the channel base, the top of the “top hat” shape. Additionally another attachment member 64 of sheet metal similar to or a part of the inner reinforcing member 46 may extend away from the door panel 38 or 40 to interconnect the respective door engagement member with the inner reinforcing member 46, as seen best in FIG. 7. An outer end 66 portion of each door engagement member 52, 54, 60, and 62 extends beyond the margin of the respective closure mating side 30 or 32, away from the respective hinge side 26 or 28 of the door on which the engagement member is mounted.

Each door engagement member 52, 54, 60, and 62 is spaced away from the door panel 40 to which it is connected by its location on the reinforcing hat shaped channel member 46, facilitating engaging the margin of the closure mating side of the opposite door as the doors 22 and 24 are moved to close them, but as shown in FIG. 8, each door engagement member overlaps the margin of the opposite door 22 or 24, so that the door engagement members prevent either door from being moved outward relative to the other by a distance greater than the height of the hat shape of the members 46. In FIG. 8 adjacent opposing portions of the two doors 22 and 24 are illustrated with both of the doors 22 and 24 are in their fully closed positions with their respective closure mating sides 30 and 32 confronting each other.

On each of the doors 22 and 24, the respective ones of its pair of door engagement members 52, 54, or 60, 62 are separated by a distance 72, center-to-center, in the range of about one-fifth to about one-third of the total height of the door. The lower door engagement member 54 or 62 of each door may be spaced apart from the bottom of the respective door by a somewhat greater distance 76, in the range of about 35% to about 45% of the entire height of the door. Each of the upper ones of the door engagement members 52 and 60 may be separated from the top of the respective door by a distance 76 that may be in the range of about 35% to about 40% of the entire height of the door.

The engagement of the pins 56 with hooks at the roof 18, engagement of the pins 58 with hooks on the end sill of the car body, the stiffening structures including outer reinforcing plates 42 and inner reinforcing members 46, and the door engagement members 52, 54, 60, and 62 that prevent the margins of the closure mating sides 30 and 32 of the doors from being moved past each other, provide a stiffened door construction capable of successfully resisting nearly any attempt at unauthorized entry into such a railroad freight car 10.

The terms and expressions which have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow. 

I/We claim:
 1. A door for an end of a railroad freight car, comprising: (a) a vertically-extending hinge side; (b) an oppositely located vertically-extending closure mating side; (c) a top end; (d) a bottom end, the door having a height between the top end and the bottom end; (e) a first door securing mechanism located at the top end; (f) a second door securing mechanism located at the bottom end; (g) a door stiffening structure mounted on the door closure mating side of the door and including: (i) an outer reinforcing plate extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an exterior face of the door; (ii) an inner reinforcing member extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an interior face of the door; and (h) a door engagement member carried on the inner reinforcing member at an intermediate height between the top end and the bottom end and extending laterally beyond the margin of the closure mating side, in a direction away from the hinge side of the door.
 2. The door of claim 1 including a door panel constructed of composite materials, wherein the outer reinforcing plate and the inner reinforcing member of the door stiffening structure are of metal and are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners each extending through the door panel.
 3. The door of claim 1 wherein the inner reinforcing member is a metal member having a hat section shape.
 4. The door of claim 3 wherein said member having a hat shape section includes a channel portion protruding away from said interior face of the door.
 5. The door of claim 1 including a pair of the door engagement members separated vertically along the closure mating side of the door by a distance of between about one-fifth and about one-third of the height of the door.
 6. The door of claim 5 wherein an upper one of said pair of door engagement members is separated vertically from the top end of the door by a distance of between about 35% and about 40% of the height of the door.
 7. The door of claim 5 wherein a lower one of the door engagement members is separated from the bottom end by a distance in the range of about 35% to about 45% of the height of the door.
 8. A pair of doors for an end of a railroad freight car, each one of the pair of doors comprising: (a) a vertically-extending hinge side; (b) an oppositely located vertically-extending closure mating side; (c) a top end; (d) a bottom end, the door having a height between the top end and the bottom end; (e) a first door securing mechanism located at the top end; (f) a second door securing mechanism located at the bottom end; (g) a door stiffening structure mounted on the door closure mating side of the door and including: (i) an outer reinforcing plate extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an exterior face of the door; (ii) an inner reinforcing member extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an interior face of the door; and (h) a respective door engagement member carried on the inner reinforcing member of each of said ones of said pair of doors, each of the door engagement members extending laterally beyond a margin of the vertically extending closure mating side of that door far enough to overlap a portion of the inner reinforcing member carried on the interior face of the other one of the pair of doors; and (i) the respective door engagement member on one of the pair of doors being at a first height and the respective door engagement member on the other one of the pair of doors being at a second height and vertically adjacent to the first height, whereby the door engagement members respectively located on the ones of the pair of doors are vertically adjacent each other.
 9. The pair of doors of claim 8, each door including a door panel constructed of composite materials, wherein the outer reinforcing plate and the inner reinforcing member of the door stiffening structure are of metal and are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners each extending through the door panel.
 10. The pair of doors of claim 8 wherein the inner reinforcing member of each door is a metal member having a hat section shape.
 11. The pair of doors of claim 10 wherein each said member having a hat section shape includes a channel portion protruding away from said interior face of the respective door.
 12. The pair of doors of claim 8 wherein each one of the pair of doors has a pair of the door engagement members separated vertically along the closure mating side of the respective door by a distance of between about one-fifth and about one-third of the height of the respective door.
 13. The pair if doors of claim 12 wherein an upper one of said pair of door engagement members of each door is separated vertically from the top end of the respective door by a distance of between about 35% and about 40% of the height of the door.
 14. The pair of doors of claim 12 wherein a lower one of the door engagement members on each door is separated from the bottom end of the respective door by a distance of between about 35% and about 45% of the height of the respective door.
 15. A railroad freight car, comprising: (a) a car body having a pair of opposite ends and a doorway at one of the opposite ends of the car body, the doorway being defined by an end sill at a bottom of the doorway and a car body roof at a top of the doorway; (b) a pair of doors enclosing the end of the car body and closing the doorway, each one of the pair of doors having: (i) a vertically-extending hinge side; (ii) an oppositely located vertically-extending closure mating side; (iii) a top end; (iv) a bottom end, the door having a height between the top end and the bottom end; (v) a first door securing mechanism located at the top end and connecting the top end to the roof; (vi) a second door securing mechanism located at the bottom end and connecting the bottom end to the end sill; (vii) a door stiffening structure mounted on the closure mating side of the door and including: (1) an outer reinforcing plate extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an exterior face of the door; (2) an inner reinforcing member extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an interior face of the door; (c) the car further including a respective door engagement member carried on the respective inner reinforcing member of each one of said pair of doors, each of the door engagement members extending laterally beyond a margin of the vertically extending closure mating side of that door far enough to overlap a portion of the inner reinforcing member carried on the interior face of the other one of the pair of doors; and (d) the respective door engagement member on one of the pair of doors being at a first height and the respective door engagement member on the other one of the pair of doors being at a second height and vertically adjacent to the first height, whereby the door engagement members respectively located on the ones of the pair of doors are vertically adjacent each other.
 16. The freight car of claim 15, each one of the doors including a door panel constructed of composite materials, wherein the outer reinforcing plate and the inner reinforcing member of the door stiffening structure are of metal and are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners each extending through the door panel.
 17. The freight car of claim 15 wherein the inner reinforcing member of each door is a metal member having a hat section shape and including a channel portion protruding away from said interior face of the respective door.
 18. The freight car of claim 13 wherein each one of the pair of doors has a pair of the door engagement members separated vertically along the closure mating side of the respective door by a distance of between about one-fifth and about one-third of the height of the respective door. 